What's In A Name Read online

  Soon a dead-eyed old man and his granddaughter come calling for the scroll. Danforth refuses to sell them the manuscript, but they will not be the last to demand it. Powerful forces crave the secrets locked within this ancient document, and Danforth will survive only if he can master its power.

  The Scroll is available here.

  The Long Sonata of the Dead

  In pursuit of the find of a lifetime, an academic confronts an old rival.

  Once visited by the likes of Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, and George Eliot, the London Library is a maze of books—a jumble of first editions and forgotten texts. For Tony, it is a refuge from the failure his life has become—and it is about to be invaded by a destructive old friend.

  Adam is a world-renowned novelist who spends so much time writing articles and appearing in documentaries that it seems impossible he actually has time to write books. He visits the library to research a nearly-forgotten English poet, Francis Youlgreave, who just happens to be Tony’s obsession. Tony has staked his career on the long-dead clergyman, and will do whatever it takes to keep Adam from stealing his research. In this ghostly library, scholarly conflict is anything but academic.

  The Long Sonata of the Dead is available here.

  The Final Testament

  As World War II draws near, a dying genius fights against hate to preserve his legacy

  Cancer has ravaged Sigmund Freud. It is 1938, and the great doctor has fled Vienna for London, where he races to finish his final, most dangerous work: a radical reimagining of the origins of Judaism, which posits that Moses was murdered by his followers. Though his colleagues say that such a controversial text could only give grist to those who would do the Jews harm, Freud is adamant about releasing the book—until a Nazi named Sauerwald comes to visit.

  He has written a manuscript in Freud’s name, a hateful screed that claims to prove that all of Jewish history is based on falsehood, and asks that Freud help him have it published—lest something unpleasant happen to the doctor’s family in Austria. Horrified by this foul threat, Freud responds with the only weapon he has left. He picks up pen and paper, and suggests that Sauerwald sit down on his couch.

  The Final Testament is available here.

  The Book of Virtue

  With his hated father dead, a man’s life takes a dangerous turn

  He doesn’t cry when his father, Frank, dies. The old man was an abusive, self-absorbed drunk, and when cancer takes him to his deathbed, his son is there to watch. At Frank’s final moment he leans over and whispers in his ear, letting the dying man know that he’s glad to see him go.

  His only inheritance is a heavy, leather-bound book. He has never seen it before, and has trouble believing that his brutal, ignorant father ever touched something so beautiful. But the volume is well-thumbed, full of aphorisms and advice written in the dead man’s hand. Soon after he reads it, the son finds his life spiralling out of control. If he doesn’t want to follow Daddy to the grave, he had best heed the lessons of the book.

  The Book of Virtue is available here.

  The Book of Ghosts

  The lie that bought Jacob Weisen a new life cannot help him escape the past

  Birkenau could not kill Jacob Weisen. He survived the death camp and made his way to America, where he became famous telling the story of Isaac Becker, an author who was tortured to death when the guards caught him writing down his story. Becker’s manuscript was lost, but by telling the tale, Weisen keeps his memory alive. No other witnesses survived—and Weisen is the only person who knows his famous story is a lie.

  In fact, Weisen was a collaborator, who led his countrymen to the ovens and gave Becker up to the SS. Decades after the war, as his lies begin to unravel, he must choose between admitting the truth and dying in a hell of his own creation.

  The Book of Ghosts is available here.

  Book Club

  When a bibliophile is murdered, it takes a bookseller to solve the crime

  Good Advice, New Mexico, is a sunny town with a gloomy bookshop. The store’s eerie corridors are the province of Avery Sharecross, an ex-cop who has made the transition from chasing killers to tracking rare books. One afternoon, the local sheriff interrupts his book club meeting, and Sharecross’s old career collides with his new one.

  The area’s premier book collector has been found bludgeoned to death on the floor of his family library. A fifth-generation resident of Good Advice, Lloyd Fister devoted his life to books, accumulating a collection of local history that date backs to the sixteenth century. In his library, a single volume is missing: a Spanish book with a sinister past. Is the missing volume a clue, a motive, or a murder weapon? It will take a collector’s eye to decide.

  Book Club is available here.

  Rides a Stranger

  After the death of his father, a literature professor is drawn into the murder investigation of a bookstore owner…

  Though Don and his father both love books, their tastes couldn’t be more different. Don is a scholar, and his father reads nothing but schlock. His house is full of dime paperbacks, battered thrillers, and case after case of western novels, none of which his son could ever bear to read.

  At his father’s funeral, Don is approached by a strange man, a rare book dealer named Lou Caledonia. Don assumes the man wants to buy his dad’s old westerns, but Lou explains that something far more important is on the line.

  Don finds the cramped confines of Lou’s used bookstore immensely comforting, but a surprise waits for him downstairs. Caledonia has been shot dead, and Don is in danger, too. The boy who was too smart to read pulp fiction is about to find himself trapped in a thriller of his own.

  Rides a Stranger is available here.

  What’s in a Name

  A rare book collector finds a manuscript that might have changed the course of WWI.

  On the evening of November 11th, 1968, antiquarian book collector Francis Altman is giving a talk in honour of the anniversary of the Armistice Treaty. But his lecture takes a dark turn upon the haunting arrival of a classmate from his past. As the two men discuss their lives they realise that they are two sides of the same coin: both born and raised in Germany, but whereas Altman’s role in the war elevated his position, his comrade’s life was destroyed on the faceless, mechanized battlefields.

  This strange encounter leaves Altman in possession of the man’s personal manuscript, his mysterious “life’s work,” whose contents could have changed the course of history...

  Thomas H. Cook’s re-imagined history of the “dangerously spinning maelstrom” of post WWI is a contemplation on man’s ability to affect the world around him and brings to light the delicate relationship between circumstance, individual action, and destiny.

  What’s in a Name is available here.

  Death Leaves a Bookmark

  Attempting the perfect murder, a killer encounters the perfect cop

  After years of get-rich-quick schemes, Troy Pellingham’s bank account is empty and his options are down to one: take a job in his uncle’s rare book shop, and spend his days working for an unpleasant man whose only redeeming quality is a mammoth bank account. Though well into his eighties, Uncle Rodney is the picture of good health, and the day when Troy will inherit the old man’s money seems very far away. But then Troy gets a brilliant idea—why shelve books for a living, when he can kill for a fortune?

  After the deed is done, a peculiarly shabby police detective comes to call. Lieutenant Columbo seems dimwitted, and Troy expects he will have no trouble putting him off the scent. But as the noose tightens around his neck, Troy realizes that no murder is too perfect for Columbo.

  Death leaves a Bookmark is available here.

  It’s in the Book

  A new Mike Hammer story from the archives of Mickey Spillane.

  On the death of crime boss Don Giraldi, a rumour begins to spread about the existence of a very dangerous book. A ledger that lists every deal made during his career.

  Th
e rumoured is that the book is in the possession of person he trusted most. But who can a crime boss trust? Hired by the local police to find the ledger, Mike Hammer soon finds himself in the firing line of everyone from the cops, the local politicians, and the crime syndicates themselves…

  It’s in the Book is available here.

  About the Author

  THOMAS H. COOK won an Edgar award for his novel The Chatham School Affair and has been shortlisted for the award six times, most recently with Red Leaves, which was also shortlisted for the Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger award. Cook lives with his family in Cape Cod and New York City.

  A Letter from the Publisher

  We hope you enjoyed this book. We are an independent publisher dedicated to discovering brilliant books, new authors and great storytelling. Please join us at www.headofzeus.com and become part of our community of book-lovers.

  We will keep you up to date with our latest books, author blogs, special previews, tempting offers, chances to win signed editions and much more.

  If you have any questions, feedback or just want to say hi, please drop us a line on [email protected]

  @HoZ_Books

  HeadofZeusBooks

  The story starts here.

  First published in the US in 2013 by MysteriousPress.com

  First published in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd

  Copyright © Thomas H. Cook, 2013

  The moral right of Thomas H. Cook to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN (E) 9781781858325

  Head of Zeus Ltd

  Clerkenwell House

  45-47 Clerkenwell Green

  London EC1R 0HT

  www.headofzeus.com

  Contents

  Cover

  Welcome Page

  What’s in a Name?

  About this Book

  Reviews

  About the Series Editors

  Also by this Author

  About Death Sentences

  About the Author

  An Invitation from the Publisher

  Copyright